BVA nearing end of work on Plum Run tributary

Workers from Flyway Excavating drop toe riprap - huge pieces of stone designed for stacking - using a backhoe Friday as part of a stream-bank restoration project along the Plum Run tributary in East Bradford Township. Staff photo by Wm. Shawn Weigel.

Marylou Hughes, who has lived along the Plum Run tributary of the Brandywine Creek for 50 years, is impressed with the work being done in her backyard.

“Didn’t they do a great job?” the East Bradford Township resident said of the stream improvement project happening as a result of the Brandywine Valley Association’s ongoing Red Streams Blue project. “I just love it.”

Hughes and several other homeowners were approached about stream bank restoration, in an effort to improve water quality through the Brandywine watershed – essentially, taking streams determined by the state to be impacted (red) and making them better (blue).

The 600-foot stretch of the current project runs along the edge of several private properties, including Hughes’, which brings with it the task of dealing with the homeowners whose properties could be temporarily disturbed by the work.

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In certain spots, vertical banks were cut back to gradual sloping banks, preventing more sediment from entering the stream.

An erosion blanket made of biodegradable materials is then put down, and the ground seeded with grass.

Bob Struble, the association’s watershed conservation director, said that workers will eventually return to plant trees at points along the bank to increase the riparian buffer that borders the stream.

Now, Struble said, when water crests the banks during a storm, it will gradually and gently flow into the adjacent floodplain rather than aggressively eroding the banks away.

Toe riprap –permanent erosion resistant ground covering –was also used at certain points along the creek, creating reinforced banks consisting of stacked, rectangular stones used to keep the banks from collapsing under the pressure of water hitting the banks, Struble said.

“The contractor picks them out themselves, they want stones that are squarish – they stack a lot better,” he said.

Several cross–vanes were also installed along the course of the river, with the toe riprap providing edging to create a channel down the center of the creek bed that promotes rushing water in the middle.

“It helps with aeration by adding oxygen to the water,” Struble said.

Hughes said the look of the water has vastly improved, especially on the streambed where rocks are stones are now visible instead of layers of silt.

She added that while she doesn’t get to enjoy her new backyard view as often as she would like, she did enjoy watching the workers make progress.

“Now if they could get somebody to put some trout in there, it would be really great,” Hughes said.

Struble said the project is the third in a series on Plum Run that is ongoing, and is part of a larger restoration program that includes four projects in total, scheduled to conclude this year.

The work, which totals just over $200,000, is funded primarily by a grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection through their Growing Greener program, with support from the Laffey-McHugh Foundation in Wilmington.

“We (the BVA) put in about 15 percent,” Struble said. “Even though the Conservation District is shepherding it through, we’re raising the funds that aren’t part of the state grant or in-kind services.”

The Chester County Conservation District is the manager of the project and the grant, and the projects are all part of BVA’s Red Streams Blue Plan and are identified as high priority projects in their Plum Run restoration plan, according to Struble.

Because of the length of the restoration, Struble said the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was also required to sign off on the project, particularly because its proximity to several wetlands.

That approval, which took over a year to get, could have caused major changes to the pricing structure of bids that were accepted months, sometimes years prior.

“We have to take the lowest bid because of the nature of the funding,” Struble said. “We will get other permits a lot faster.”

Floods and changes to the landscape, coupled with increasing material costs, can severely affect the spending on the project.

“The faster we get them started the better. This program is a five-year program … so we got prices from five years ago. And that’s all the state is going to give us,” he said. “None of the three projects so far have stayed within that budget. We’re close, but it’s been hard.”

Flyway Excavating Inc. of Litiz is handling the excavation and stream-bank work.